While birdies and bogeys are back in vogue at most Southeast Texas golf courses, Belle Oaks is just getting started on the long road to recovery and the fate of The Palms at Pleasure Island remains somewhat in limbo.

“We are both waiting for things to settle down,” said George Brown of Aquila Golf, in reference to the city of Port Arthur and what’s next for The Palms. “Right now, it’s not the top priority. There are people who have lost their homes that need to be needed to first.”

Brown did, however, tend to play down rumors that The Palms will not be re-opened.

“My intention and I believe the city’s is to eventually get it up and running again,” he said, after talking with city officials on Monday. “But we’re on a pretty slow timetable and we’re at the mercy of a lot of outside forces like insurance companies and FEMA. We don’t know at this point if funds will be available from FEMA.”

According to Brown, the biggest concern at this point is not being able to get fresh water on the greens. Many of the greens were under salt water for a period of time and need to be flushed. But that can’t be done at this point and probably not in the immediate future.

“I haven’t been out on the course, but the putting green is already turning brown,” said Brown.

The Palms lost all its golf carts and maintenance equipment to flood waters and questions remain about damage done to pumps and the irrigation system.

Because of all the variables, Brown says there is simply no way to throw out a timetable.

“Once we can all get out there and give it a close inspection, we’ll see what we can do,” he said. “For now, my original assessment stands. It will be closed indefinitely.”

Belle Oaks, meanwhile, is slowly but surely working toward yet another re-opening from hurricane damage. And course superintendent Bryan Jackson’s assessment after Hurricane Humberto is starting to look more and more prophetic.

“We’re about one hurricane after from being a links course,” Jackson had said, after the former Port Arthur Country Club lost hundreds of trees to Rita and Humberto.”

Jackson estimates Belle Oaks lost 200 more trees, including a few that will further change the character of the golf course. First and foremost in that group was the big oak that sat near the left front of the 13th green and rejected many incoming second and third shots.

Also gone is the oak behind the sand trap on the left of No. 8 and big oaks that fell onto the 4th and 18th greens.

Jackson’s top priority is keeping the greens watered. With the watering system inoperative, he’s been hand watering from a 1,000 gallon water truck being refilled from the fire hydrants at Belle Oaks co-owner Jerry Braxton’s Lake Estates housing development.

“It’s a tedious process,” said Jackson. “We drive the truck out on the course and pump out through a fire hose. We can do about two greens per truckload and about half the greens in a day. I’d sure welcome some rain. I’ve been doing rain dances every day.”